Email triage is an exercise engaged in by email users in order to organize messages in their inbox or other folders. When triaging their email, users make quick decisions about how to handle a given email, such as by electing to delete an email, move an email to another folder, or mark an email for later follow up.
Some email applications provide specific features to assist with triage, such as the follow-up feature in Microsoft® Outlook® that allows a user to mark an email for follow up later that day, the next day, or even in a matter of weeks or more. A task is then scheduled in the task module, a reminder can be set for the task, and so on.
Users frequently user their mobile devices to triage email. Mobile situations tend to lend themselves to brief interactions with one's inbox, such as when traveling or at other moments when there is enough time to make some decisions with respect to an email, but not enough time to prepare a detailed response or otherwise respond at length.
Many mobile email applications lack some of the features and functionality as their desktop counterparts, and thus may not offer triaging capabilities. In such situations, users sometimes resort to ad-hoc solutions to triage their email, such as by marking read messages as “un-read” so as to capture their attention later. At the very least, some limited triage is possible by deleting messages, but this is largely a sub-optimal experience.
However, one solution supports email triage in a mobile environment by providing a triage view of a user's mail in terms of those messages that have been triaged and those that remain un-triaged. The user can navigate to the triaged emails or possibly to the un-triaged emails. When dealing with the un-triaged emails, the user can elect an email to be handled next or deferred for later reference. A specific task can also be created in association with an email, such as to place a call or schedule a meeting related to the email.
As a user progresses through their email, various tasks will be created which can then be viewed later by way of a desktop email client. In addition to viewing their inbox, a user may view their tasks in the desktop email client, organized in various ways, such as by the task type or by when the tasks are due.
Overview
Provided herein are systems, methods, and software for implementing a reminder service that allows users to organize email in an email application such that they may be reminded about a follow-up action in another application.
In at least one implementation, a reminder service receives action information indicative of an email selected for follow-up action in an email application. The reminder service identifies an additional application through which to surface a reminder about the follow-up action and communicates reminder information to the additional application with which to render the reminder.
In some implementations, a user interface to an email service may be rendered that includes a triage menu through which to select a follow-up action for an email. Another user interface to an additional service may also be rendered that includes a reminder about the follow-up action for the email.
This Overview is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Technical Disclosure. It may be understood that this Overview is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.